U.S. Attorney watching UA Greek situation

Former student leaders condemn Greek segregation

09-18-2013 -- Tuscaloosa, Ala -- University of Alabama students and faculty marched from the steps of Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library to the Rose Administration building at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday Sept. 18, 2013. They demonstrated to voice their displeasure with UA's handling of sorority segregation.

Robert Sutton | The Tuscaloosa News

By Jay ReevesThe Associated Press

Published: Thursday, September 19, 2013 at 11:00 p.m.

Last Modified: Thursday, September 19, 2013 at 11:38 p.m.

TUSCALOOSA | The U.S. attorney in Birmingham said she is monitoring allegations of racial discrimination and segregation within the Greek system at the University of Alabama, while a group of former student leaders spoke out Thursday in support of more diversity on campus.

09-18-2013 -- Tuscaloosa, Ala -- University of Alabama students and faculty marched from the steps of Amelia Gayle Gorgas Library to the Rose Administration building at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday Sept. 18, 2013. They demonstrated to voice their displeasure with UA's handling of sorority segregation.

Robert Sutton | The Tuscaloosa News

Federal law prevents racial discrimination in housing, education and other areas, and U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance said her staff in Birmingham has been reviewing statutes and monitoring the situation on campus. The office has a unit dedicated to enforcing civil rights laws.

“We have talked to a lot of people in Tuscaloosa,” Vance said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Peggy Sanford, press information officer for Vance's office, said there is no open investigation, characterizing it as an informal monitoring of the situation.

Last week, the UA student newspaper, The Crimson White, detailed allegations of racial bias during sorority recruitment in August, which have drawn state and national attention and criticism.

Sanford said the office began monitoring the situation following media reports about the allegations of discrimination.

The office has had “conversations” with the UA leadership about the situation, Sanford said.

“It is just a matter of watching and a matter of offering assistance if the university needs help,” Sanford said.

Vance declined comment on whether her office had received any formal complaints about the Greek system at Alabama.

Vance said she was hopeful the university would make “significant progress” on its own without outside intervention.

“What we see now is a community that is trying to transform itself, and we will do anything we can to assist in that,” she said.

In an advertisement that ran in The Crimson White, 18 former campus leaders — including a past Alabama attorney general and an ex-governor's son — signed a joint statement to “publicly encourage diversity among the university's white and black Greek fraternities and sororities.”

Kenneth Mullinax, a member of Alpha Tau Omega fraternity who was part of the powerful campus group known as The Machine while a student at Alabama, said the 18 who signed the statement pooled funds to pay for the $1,000 ad. The group included former state Attorney General Bill Baxley and Birmingham attorney Rob Riley, a former UA Student Government Association president and son of former Gov. Bob Riley. The signers included whites and blacks, men and women, Greek alumni and people who didn't join a group while in college.

“We have a lot of frat boys,” said Mullinax, currently a spokesman for Alabama State University.

In the ad, the sponsors urge the administrators, the UA System board of trustees and Greek organizations to encourage diversity and discontinue any practices that promote segregation.

The recent reports detailing discrimination during sorority rush prompted UA President Judy Bonner to order a mandatory open bid process in an effort to make it easier for minority students to join traditionally white groups.

In a video message released Tuesday, Bonner referred to the system as being racially segregated and said at least some membership decisions were based on race.

While the student body of 34,852 is around 13 percent black, there have been only rare instances of blacks joining traditionally white Greek groups or whites joining black groups. Many Greek organizations have multimillion-dollar homes where members live on campus.

Rebel Steiner, an Alabama graduate who now practices entertainment law in Los Angeles, said he lent his name to the advertisement because he was saddened to see media reports of racial segregation still being practiced at Alabama 50 years after the school successfully admitted its first black students.

“We have diversity in the student body and it's not reflected in the fraternities and sororities, and I think it's time that the Greek system catches up,” Steiner said.

In a move meant to help foster more togetherness and with the first home football game of the season this Saturday, the student government association said it was suspending a system in which groups are given assigned blocks of seats in Bryant-Denny Stadium. Students have long complained that the most powerful and richest fraternities on campus often get the best football seats.

Staff writer Ed Enoch contributed to this report.

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